How do you keep your world notes useful while drafting?

[kush_core_39]

Hi everyone. I’m exploring how fantasy writers turn their worldbuilding ideas into a reference they can actually use while writing. I’m considering building a tool in this area, but I’d like to understand how people work first.

What do you refer to while drafting—paper notes, a document, a wiki, or something else? And when you change an established fact halfway through a story, how do you find and update the other parts of your world that it affects?

I’d especially appreciate a real example of the last time this happened. If your current approach works well, I’d love to hear about that too. I’ll be here to read and respond to replies.

 

[pmmg]

My notes are pretty sparse. Mostly just bullet points. It might look like:


Places:

Midgarl
Worf's Howl
Gateskeep


Languages:
Tieran
Marish
Durish

Currency:
Tolents
Crowns
Pearls


Nothing more fancy than that. I keep it all in scrivener and rarely look at it.

I have one character I named Ginoux, but I am often forgetting if it was Ginoux or Giroux, so I am constantly looking up the spelling.

 

[casval]

I use Obsidian, which is a markdown editor with 'vaults' to organize and store notes. I like to have a lot of folders so I can hide information I don't need.

Here's an example - I use little icons for everything because it helps me find the notes faster, and I have it on dark mode because I get migraines.

One thing I like about using Obsidian is that it auto-updates if I change the name of anything, so for instance here is a small section of Dill's bio.

But if I go to Sorrel's page and change her name...

it will automatically change it to her new name in Dill's note, and every other note where I mention her.

This is especially useful for minor characters and places when I haven't really settled on a name yet. I can still write my first draft or work on my outlines with a placeholder like [[oliver cromwell-aragorn hybrid ruler]] and when I've settled on a name for him, I just have to change it once and not have to CTRL+F my way through all of my notes to fix it. My second draft I am probably writing in another program, but by then I don't usually need to change things like that.

 

[Insolent Lad]

My world building is largely in the form of plain text documents (lots and lots of them) neatly sorted into folders (lots and lots of them). I can usually find what I need pretty quickly. Or quickly enough. This is separate, of course, from story notes.

 

[skip.knox]

I often find that no matter how useful the worldbuilding project is, when I'm in the depths of writing, I don't bother. I just put in a placeholder or, worse, just writer whatever-the-hell and keep going.

Consistency is something I address during revision. It's usually not until then that I've settled on names, terms, and so on. It gets even trickier when some names have various forms, nicknames are used, and speakers of different languages sometimes have their own versions. Then there's the times when I just plain haven't figured things out again. Or, I've made a change in the novel and I like that better than what's in the world bible, so I have to go back and change *that*.

The auto change thing sounds attractive, but that can get tricky. Try auto-changing Val to Burik and you can easily wind up with words like eburikuate. Can happen with global search, too.

There's another use for the world bible. It's a repository for ideas. As I figure something out about how my dwarves work, I'll put that into the world bible. Things can get a bit chaotic in there--notes about history, religion, economics, prejudices, legends, and so on. Some of that gets outdated and I am not good about updating because I've got my hands full just working on the WIP and don't want to waste time tidying up. Only it's not time wasted, but just try convincing me that in the moment. *sigh*

 

[casval]

The auto change thing sounds attractive, but that can get tricky. Try auto-changing Val to Burik and you can easily wind up with words like eburikuate. Can happen with global search, too.

Back before I used Obsidian (which requires the word is in [[brackets]] to get the auto-change so it's not an issue), my solution to this was to name everything one-word, all-caps MAINCHARACTERLOVEINTEREST so it was super easy to find them all and fix it. A little clunky but at least I'd never mess it up, haha.

 

[Mad Swede]

Well, given that I'm a one pass writer who thinks the whole story through first and then writes it down I don't keep any notes at all. It's all in my head. Once I've started writing it down things like established facts don't change. Note here that I'm severely dyslexic so I wouldn't use any sort of tool to organise my world building into a reference, simply because it would take me too long to find what I needed.

 

[Rudolphthered]

I have a main folder with a document where I write down every bit of lore from my world, separated into continents to make things easier. Whenever I write a story, I already know where and when it's happening, so I refer to that specific lore, though in practice I just remember small tidbits that I learn from working constantly on it.

If I find myself changing something, I put a comment (I use LibreOffice) like: "Change this." "Placeholder name." And such. Then update the main document.

 

[ThinkerX]

I have lots and lots of files filled with worldbuilding materials. That is mostly for prep and is rarely consulted during actual writing.

For drafting, I have 'Title 0' files, one per story, with a bullet outline and a list of the main characters, towns, and stuff like that.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

We use OneNote. We've used OneNote for a very, very long time. lol We love it because it lets the three of us collaborate in real time. It's super easy, versitile, and free if you already have the Microsoft suite.

 

[ThinkerX]

We use OneNote. We've used OneNote for a very, very long time. lol We love it because it lets the three of us collaborate in real time. It's super easy, versitile, and free if you already have the Microsoft suite.

I see you are keeping tabs on me...

 

[A. E. Lowan]

I see you are keeping tabs on me...

It's possible there's one or two up there. lol

 

[Prince of Spires]

How do I keep my world note? badly...

Like A. E. Lowan I use OneNote which is a great tool for this (except that it lacks the internal links I guess. But it's far from complete. Most characters have at least a page. However, there's always that one character who starts off having only 2 lines of dialogue and a throw-away name. Who doesn't get added right away, but then shows up 3 chapters later and turns out to be bigger than originally envisioned. But still lacks an entry.

Or that small bit of worldbuilding where the minor hamlet a character travels through turns out later to have played a crucial role in the world's history. Or that religious principle that gets made up on the spot but because I'm in a writing flow doesn't get added right away and thus never makes it in. Or that quick town or character description. Or...

And that's without all the stuff that gets added while writing a first draft and then disappears in a later draft. I've had plenty of characters disappear between drafts or locations that change or never get used etc.

I really need my books to become bestsellers so I can pay for an assistant to just update the thing for me as I write.

I have heard great things about wikidPad, which is an open source wiki-like tool which you can run on your local computer.